ISW: Russia prepares for annexation and forced conscription of Ukrainians to war

Russia may announce the annexation of Ukraine's occupied territories around  October 1 in order to forcibly conscript Ukrainians as part of the autumn conscription campaign.

"The Kremlin’s planned annexation of occupied Ukraine may take place before or shortly after October 1, the start of Russia’s normal fall conscription cycle, to enable the forced conscription of Ukrainian civilians to fight against Ukraine," Caliber.Az reports citing the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

If it does, the Kremlin will likely order the Russian Ministry of Defence to include Ukrainian civilians in occupied and newly annexed Ukrainian territory in the Russian conscription cycle, broadening the forced mobilization of Ukrainian civilians to fight against Ukraine.

ISW has previously assessed that one motivation for Putin to order mobilisation and annexation in concert with one another is to broaden the forced mobilisation of Ukrainian civilians, but those civilians do not meet the legal criteria for the Kremlin’s current partial mobilisation order — almost none of them in the mobilisable age categories are likely to have experience in the Russian military.